Why is my DPS low?

[Milennin]

I was playing on Midnight Skypetal Plains for the first time today, and there was a DPS meter on the screen that showed how well I and some others were doing. I could barely peak over the 20K at my best, while the others all went over 50K with ease. I know I'm not the strongest at 757 AP, but what can I do to get up my DPS, apart from raising my AP?

[Kosako Assano]

Use the Hongmoon Mastercard skill to up your dps.

[Niraya]

Depending on your gear 20k may be the highest damage you can obtain. there are a lot of power spikes when you get certain pieces of equipment that make a considerable difference in dps. That being said, there are some things you can do to ensure you're doing as much damage as possible.

 

Ensure you have as much up time in draw stance as possible - Being in draw stance doesn't just let you use your biggest damaging abilities (Flicker (LMB) + Lighning Flash (F)).

Ensure you have as much uptime on Electric Surge as possible - When you use an ability to get into draw stance it will state that you get a buff called Electric Surge for x seconds. This is what allows you to get Lightning orbs when you crit with Flicker and those lightning orbs allow you to use Lightning Flash. it also gives you a crit damage buff (+20%) and increased critical chance (+5%).

 

High Critical Hit - Using Lightning Flash (F) is reliant on you getting criticals with Flicker (LMB). Getting as high crit chance as possible will help you stay in draw stance longer and a higher crit chance will help you output more damage. Ensure you are rolling crit on as many pieces of your soulshiels as you can, and make sure you are using all crit primers on them.

 

Practice your Animation Cancel - Having a tight animation between your Flicker and Lightning Flash will have a significant impact on your overall damage. Hopefully you have decent ping to be able to do this well, if not it's something you can't really control. Ideally you should always have more Lightning Flashes than Flickers in a fight... somewhere between 1.5-2x more. This is mostly because on every time you use Lightning Flash it hits twice.

 

Skills - Obviously having the correct skills will help, I'm not going to go through each and every skill that should be specced. I would ask or look at what other Blade Dancers are using if you're unsure. In F2 you can see the skills that people are using.

 

Hongmoon Skills - None of the Hongmoon skills are really required for Blade Dancer, but two in particular will help out with DPS. You'll want to have Hongmoon Secret Technique - Lightning Draw, and the 3 Offals to amplify Flaming Scourge.

 

Elemental accessories - Getting equipment that increases your element's damage will give you a big damage increase. I would recommend the Lightning earring from Desolate Tomb if you don't already have it. The ring is very good aswell but you may lose too much crit for it to be worth it.

 

Soul and Mystic Badges - For soul badges, Primal Force is always a good choice, but Magnum badge is really nice if you're running the 8-piece MSP Soulshield. For Mystic Badge you'll want to get the Pulse Mystic badge. The Pulse Mystic badge is a little difficult to get costing 50 Raven feather, but if you have been doing the weekly DKV you should get there soon if you don't already have them. It further increases your damage when in Electric surge (+20% crit damage and 100% additional damage with Flicker).

 

Be a Team player - Always help out with cc and grab when you can. it's a dps loss for you, but a dps increase for the entire party, don't be selfish.

 

I hope this was helpful

-Niraya

 

[Milennin]

Thanks a lot, Niraya. That was very helpful. I've had a look at some of those items, and now I get what I've been missing, lol. Looks like I'm going to be busy for a while.

[TJXX]

It's most likely your rotation, if you post a screen shot of the dps meter with your skill break down it'd be easier to tell you the real problem.

[Milennin]

54 minutes ago, TJXX said:

It's most likely your rotation, if you post a screen shot of the dps meter with your skill break down it'd be easier to tell you the real problem.

I didn't screenshot it, but I mostly just use LMB and F while in Draw Mode.

[TJXX]

On ‎7‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 4:16 PM, Milennin said:

I didn't screenshot it, but I mostly just use LMB and F while in Draw Mode.

You should have 2x or more lightning flash in comparison to flicker.

[Milennin]

I don't really count how many I have. I just press the LMB and F as much as I can, lol. I can't really look whether or not F is available, because I keep my eyes on the boss and the danger zones.

[Zedonia]

It's important that you anicancel correctly in lightning build. F is your main dps and if you cut that too much your dps will suck no matter what gear you have. You can also play wind, it's much easier to do the correct rotation.

[TJXX]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 4:34 AM, Milennin said:

I don't really count how many I have. I just press the LMB and F as much as I can, lol. I can't really look whether or not F is available, because I keep my eyes on the boss and the danger zones.

That's why you have low dps then.

[Sicarius Sin]

Casual gaming habits will always be a drawback for trying to compete on the DPS meter.  TJXX is correct in saying that one of the reasons your DPS is low is that you aren't attuned yet to boss mechanics and danger zones and have to "keep your eyes on the boss and danger zones".  While you are having to do this, you will always suffer on the meter for your gear level.  A lot of people don't mind that for themselves but it doesn't remove the fact that it's true.

 

If you are that worried about your DPS (after you get your gear) then the only thing that is going to significantly increase your DPS more than just gear is you learning the mechanics and not having to pay strict attention to them.  You will always be more worried about when what is happening more than hitting the correct ability at the correct time.

 

Learn the fights and your DPS will increase more than a piece of gear.

[Neriux777]

Bla Bla Bla and ... When i was young, I bought apple with 50 cents, i cleared it and sell with 1 eu, then I bought 2 apples and then...

AND then my grandfather dead and i got few millions. IS SAME

Go buy item with feathers and peaches and your "damage" for first hit gonna be OF THE RUFF, my (sf) 80k from first hit and then falling down, to narmall 30k regular.

[dklm]

There are ceilings as to how high your dps can get.  That is mainly determined by your gear.  Two blade dancers doing the same rotation can have different damage outputs.  If you managed to hit 20k with only 757 AP, that is already very high and that is also probably because you had buffs from other classes like soulburn and fighting spirit.

 

You need to realize what things you can get to raise your dps.  That can be researched through the equipment upgrade paths and also your damage should increase with soul and mystic badges.